Saturday, January 3, 2009

Written 50 Years Ago, but it's still shockingly true today

"Executive planners changed from being maker-minded to market-minded. The president of National Sales Executives in fact exclaimed: 'Capitalism is dead-consumerism is king!'" (15).

When historians look back 50 years from now, they are going to make the distinction between industrial capitalism and commercial consumerism. Make the distinction yourself, we don't live in a capitalist system, we live in a consumerist system. Firms don't supply demand, they CREATE demand.

The biggest difference between the marketing of the 1950's and the marketing of today is the penetration of the marketers. In 50 years they have perfected their technique and they have over time shaped the moral fabric of our values. We have become more and more superficial, more and more materialistic, and its no accident. According to the AAP, kids in the United States see 40,000 commercials each year. That's about half a million commercials by the time a kid is teenager. Half a million commercials that are designed to subconsciously manipulate the viewer. If that's not brainwashing, what is?

1 comment:

so true, so fucked up. also the brand revolution of the 1990's changed things completely. The introduction of "creating a brand" as the focus of advertising means that we shape our personal identities around what we buy. I'm dedicated and hard working if i chose to wear Nike, ect. They want us to view products as pieces of the puzzle to construct our identities with